You don’t often meet women like Pat Withers. Aged 81, or 20.25 if you take into account her being born on a leap day, Pat is an octogenarian sheep farmer who tends her small flock on an island in the middle of Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf.
“Rākino is either a big rock or a small island,” Pat tells the Weekly from her rustic seaside home.
“There are only about 20 of us who live here full-time and being off-grid, it’s very quiet in winter as the holiday people don’t tend to come when it’s cold.”
Discovering Rākino’s hidden paradise
As to how Pat discovered her treasure of an island, she says she has her former husband Grant to thank.
“Grant had been here doing some building for a man called Doug,” recalls Pat of that life-changing visit.
“That was 1978 – back when the island was mainly just grazing for cattle. To say thanks, Doug invited us out for a weekend with the family and we never really left!”
Fringed with pōhutukawa and crystal-blue waters, Rākino is a paradise just 40 minutes from downtown Auckland, so it’s no surprise the family fell in love with the place. When they heard the block next door to Doug’s was for sale, they pounced.
“We really fancied this piece of land and in Easter of 1982, Grant drove down to negotiate with the owner who lived in Cambridge,” shares Pat.
“We bought it for $23,000, which felt like a lot at the time.”
Building a life on the island
After building their house the same year, Pat and Grant loved watching their children grow up on Rākino – although sadly their own marriage didn’t last.
“I was sore about that for a good few years,” admits Pat.
“But it also means I’ve done things I’d never have otherwise done.”
Like volunteer on the radio for Coastguard and learn to build.
Handy with a hammer
“Sometimes I helped one of the builders here,” she says proudly.
“I’ve done work on people’s houses they wouldn’t have a clue about – from putting in decks to concrete footings.”
But it wasn’t until Pat was in her seventies that she moved over for good.
“I’d just retired from Auckland Transport, where I was a senior contract administrator,” she explains.
“It was 2014 and instead of just visiting at weekends, I’d hop on the boat and come out any time.”
A bold move in 2016
After two years of to-ing and fro-ing, at the end of the 2016 summer holidays, Pat had an epiphany as she was packing to leave.
“It had been so lovely, and I was running the children and grandchildren down to the boat when I realised I didn’t need to go back,” remembers Pat of her bold move.
“So I waved them off!”
These days, beyond managing her modest flock of woolly lawn mowers, she keeps a few chickens and tends her large garden. She also assists with the island’s rubbish collection and because Pat is bursting with charisma, when UK TV host George Clarke dropped by last summer, she caught the popular architect’s eye.
“He was making George Clarke’s Homes in the Wild, which looks at a few places here and on Great Barrier,” she says.
“As part of that, they filmed Tom, who does the rubbish collection. I volunteer once a week. “Every Monday, I jump out of bed and do the rubbish, and talk to people along the way. Then we finish back at Tom’s, and he and his wife Sheryl make me a cup of coffee – that’s my social life for the week!”
A visit from George Clarke
Which is how George came to spend an afternoon at Pat’s place.
“George wandered around and he looked at my shower,” she shares.
“My son got the idea for it in Africa and according to George, it’s an engineering masterpiece. Then he saw my bath, which he was especially taken with,”
Pat explains of her al fresco ablutions.
“And he yelled out, ‘Pat, I’m never going home!’”
Pearls, platters, and a TV crew
Of course having a famous architect visit the island was cause for excitement.
“Somebody told me to wear my pearls, which I did, so I’m doing the rubbish in my pearls,” she laughs.
“A group of us also went to Michael Dearth’s,” tells Pat of the day George and his TV crew visited.
“He was a judge on MasterChef and he has a place out here. He made some lovely platters!”
Looking to the future, Pat says there’s no place she’d rather be than Rākino.
“I love it here,” she enthuses.
“Every morning I wake up, I just take each day as it comes.”
George Clarke’s Homes in the Wild screens 8.30pm Thursdays on Sky Open.
